


close your eyes and hold out your hand

by zhennie



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Injury, ChikaIta Week 2020, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25719577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhennie/pseuds/zhennie
Summary: In the quietest hour of the night, Chikage calls Itaru to pick him up.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru & Utsuki Chikage, Chigasaki Itaru/Utsuki Chikage
Comments: 4
Kudos: 90
Collections: ChikaIta Week 2020





	close your eyes and hold out your hand

**Author's Note:**

> for chikaita week day 2: trust

“Your phone is ringing.” 

Even if Itaru hadn’t heard the Knights of Round theme playing cheerfully, he definitely knew his phone was ringing when his sister hurled it at him, like a rock or a baseball rather than the precious device that it was. Itaru yelped, fumbling both the controller in his hand and the phone, both bouncing comically between his hands until he gripped the phone and let the controller tumble to the ground. 

“Lame,” his sister sang, and Itaru scowled. 

“Give me some warning next time!” he called after her, but as usual, she ignored him, and Itaru, still scowling, turned his attention to his phone. Senpai’s name flashed on the ringing screen in front of the one casual picture he had managed to get of him. Senpai hated having his picture taken, but for some reason, he had let Itaru pull him close that night, their faces mashed close together as he raised the phone, aimed, and taken the shot--Itaru, his cheeks flushed and his smile easy, and Senpai, unmistakably fond. 

Itaru frowned--everyone back at the dorms knew that he was visiting home this weekend, so he couldn’t think of a single reason why Chikage would be calling him, let alone at this time of night. Regardless, he shrugged, accepting the call and lifting the phone to his ear.

“Hello, Senpai?” Itaru answered. There was silence on the other end of the line--the sound of static, and then a heavy breath, slow and labored. 

“...Senpai?” Itaru repeated, more hesitantly. 

“....Chigasaki,” Senpai rasped faintly. Itaru sat up at that, pressing the phone closer to his ear as if that would make his voice louder. 

“Senpai, are you okay?” Itaru asked. The line lapsed back into silence, but Itaru could make out Chikage’s slow breaths, loud and overcompensating. 

“Senpai?” Itaru repeated, like it was the only thing he could say, “Senpai, you’re scaring me.” Another breath, and then Chikage mumbled out an address that Itaru scrambled to write down, scribbling it onto a piece of paper that he then clutched in his hand like a good luck charm.

“Got it, I’m coming,” Itaru said, hastily getting up from the couch and fumbling around. Car keys, where were his car keys? 

“Stay on the line with me, Senpai,” Itaru continued, but a faint beep signaled call disconnection. Itaru cursed, finally locating his keys. 

“Where are you going?” his sister asked as he dashed past her, “it’s late!” 

“I’ll be back soon!” Itaru called instead, jamming his feet into his shoes and cursing his low physical stats. He was out of breath by the time he got to the car, and still panting heavily as he made his way down the roads, GPS navigation giving him directions in an impassive, disinterested voice as he kept his eyes peeled for Senpai’s tall form. But despite that, Itaru leaned forward, squinting into the darkness as he looked--and then braked, suddenly, throwing on his hazard lights and his seatbelt off. He fumbled out of the car and into the alley, where the crumpled form of one Utsuki Chikage was. 

Chikage’s head whipped up at the sound of Itaru running towards him, body tense and coiled, but relaxed as he saw who it was.

“Thanks for coming,” Chikage breathed, and leaning his head back, Itaru could see the blood smeared across his chin. He wasn’t really sure what to say to that. ‘No problem’? ‘Of course’? Chikage shifted, and something clattered. Itaru looked down at the noise--a knife, still shiny red with blood, Chikage’s hand still wet with the same blood as well.

It was one thing to know that Senpai lived this life. It was one thing to see blood, however realistic, through a screen. There was a barrier that divided “reality” from “fiction” that Itaru often wished he could cross. Faced with that reality, though--well. Itaru took a deep breath in, and let it out.

“You need to go to a hospital,” Itaru said, “I don’t know why you called me, you know I don’t have the STR to carry you.” 

“No hospital,” Chikage spat, “I’ll be fine. Help me up.” 

“Senpai,” Itaru started, but Chikage gave him a look, and his words couldn’t help but get stuck with that look, dwindling into quiet. 

“Help me up,” Chikage repeated, and somehow, with Itaru providing support on one side and Chikage pushing himself up through sheer force and his cheat skills, they fumbled their way slowly to Itaru’s still running car. 

“Go back and get the knife,” Chikage mumbled once Itaru had gotten him situated. 

“ _ That’s _ what you’re thinking about right now?” Itaru asked in disbelief.

“ _ Chigasaki _ ,” Chikage stressed, and Itaru let out a hiss through his teeth. 

“Fine,” Itaru said, briskly walking back to the alley, feeling around in the darkness until he heard the clatter of the knife and felt the wetness of the not-yet dried blood. Itaru held it gingerly, not entirely sure the safest way to hold it in his hands--for all the games he’s played, he’d never actually held a knife like this before, let alone one covered in blood. For all the blood he’s seen in games, he’s still uneasy to be seeing it in real life.

“What should I do with it?” Itaru asked, when he’d returned back to the car. Chikage’s eyes were closed now, but twitched before opening again when Itaru spoke. 

“Give it to me,” Chikage said, “I need you to drive.” His eyes lingered on Itaru’s hands as the knife was passed over, and he frowned, slightly. 

“What?” Itaru asked.

“It’s nothing,” Chikage replied, “I just don’t like seeing your hands covered in blood.” Itaru blinked, looking down at his hands--the blood on the knife had gotten on his hands, a wide swath across his palm. 

“Oh,” Itaru said--because again, what was he supposed to say when Senpai said something like that--and tried, best he could, to wipe his palms off against his pants. 

“I need you to drive,” Chikage finally repeated, leaning back and closing his eyes again. 

“Okay, okay,” Itaru said, making his way back around and back into the car. Chikage gave directions with his eyes closed--but really, was Itaru surprised that he could, at this point? It wasn’t a long drive, but by the time Chikage opened his eyes again, mumbled ‘there’, and pointed at a warehouse, Itaru wasn’t sure where they were. 

“Is this your secret hideout?” Itaru asked, only half joking.

“What if I said it was?” Chikage replied, and Itaru huffed out a laugh. 

“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said, and then slowly, the two of them made their way to the warehouse, Itaru providing what support he could, and Chikage laboriously shuffling from the car to the door of the warehouse. There was a panel at the door which slid up to reveal a keypad and--was that a retinal scanner? 

“I’ve definitely played this game before,” Itaru commented, and Chikage rolled his eyes. 

“Help me inside,” Chikage said instead, not bothering to answer, and the next few moments were filled with the two of them shuffling yet again into the warehouse, which was empty and echo-y--not that Itaru would have expected anything else from a secret base. From the couch that Itaru had set him on, Chikage directed Itaru around, making him grab a first aid kit, some water, a pillow from another room which turned out to be a bedroom. 

When Itaru returned with the pillow, he came to a stop. Chikage had rolled up his shirt, revealing not only his current injury, but a torso covered in scars. And it wasn’t a secret--in the baths, it was inevitable that Itaru, and the other Mankai members, would see the extent of them all. They streaked across his body, like a history that Chikage never admitted to. And for some reason, Itaru had never thought about the fact--considered the possibility--that they weren’t all old scars. He was Utsuki Chikage, after all. Itaru’s roommate and senpai, a cheat character with a mysterious past. Itaru had never considered that maybe that wasn’t the whole truth.

“Senpai,” Itaru said, and Chikage looked up from where he was cleaning his wound. 

“Thanks,” Chikage said, noticing the pillow in Itaru’s arms, “just put it--”

“Senpai, why did you call  _ me _ ?” Itaru asked, cutting him off, “of all people, why me?”

“You were closest,” Chikage replied smoothly, glancing up at Itaru before going back to wiping away the dried blood around his wound, not wincing or giving any indication that he was, in fact, dealing with an injury, “I knew you had gone home for the weekend ,and your home was closer so--”

“Liar.” Chikage startled at Itaru’s declaration, antiseptic wipe brushing directly over the open wound and making him wince for the first time. He looked up, a frown on his face, and Itaru turned his phone screen to Chikage, a map pulled up, GPS locators showing their distance to the dorms, markers for Itaru’s family home and the alleyway scattered across the screen, indisputable truth markers. 

“We’re almost back at the dorms,” Itaru said, “you could have called anyone else--Hisoka, the Director--”

“No, I couldn’t,” Chikage replied, his voice quiet, but steady. “I wouldn’t.” 

“Why not?” Itaru pushed. 

“You never make anything easy, don’t you?” Chikage asked, his mouth twisting, and set down the wipe he had been holding, while he held out his other hand. Itaru crossed the room, holding out the pillow, and Chikage took it from him, setting it down next to him on the couch. But before Itaru could pull his hand back, Chikage had taken a hold of it with his other hand, and then both of his hands were cupping Itaru’s, smoothing it open--the hand that, earlier, Itaru had used to hold the knife, a faint stain of blood still around the edges of his palm. 

“It’s because I trust you,” Chikage said, his thumb running over over Itaru’s palm, cradled between his two hands. 

“....what?” Itaru said, dumbly, his eyes flicking from where Chikage was holding them to his face, soft in expression and softened by the light. 

“I won’t say it again,” Chikage replied, “if you didn’t hear it the first time, that’s your own fault.” Itaru blinked, and then gave a little huff of laughter.

“Okay,” Itaru replied with an exhale, and curled his fingers around Chikage’s.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to lily and kuro for betaing.


End file.
